By Lucille Skelton
Charting a course to become a Grand Destination University Grounded in Excellence
In April 2025, 60 volunteers were brought together to join UVI’s new Agile Strategic Planning effort of beginning to identify and define one of the 2-quarter projects listed under UVI’s GRAND Momentum Strategic Plan 2025 – 2030. Five (5) blended teams of UVI faculty, staff, students and members of the Board of Trustees came together and were trained in a new collaboration technique in order to implement various projects under each letter of GRAND.
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G=Giving, Fundraising & Investing in our students,
R=Resource; Recruitment; Research & Recognition,
A=Academic Achievement & Excellence,
N=Number One; Innovation & Infrastructure Improvements,
D=Data Science; Distinction in Technology; Destination Education.
In this month’s newsletter, we’ll take a closer look at one of the teams within Team R who is led by Sharlene Harris, Vice President of Institutional Assessment & Information Services and serves as the main point of contact for this initiative.
The following are overviews of Team R’s two initiatives being worked on, 1- Staff Incentive Program and 2- Sensitivity Training projects for UVI’s GRAND MOMENTUM Implementation Team R.
Incentive Program
The purpose of the Incentive Program Project is for “showing University of the Virgin Islands employees their importance” (The UVI 2025 GRAND MOMENTUM Strategic Plan). The project package outlines the program’s mission, vision, goals-outcomes map, and guidelines. An accompanying detail to cover the points below:
- recording candidates and their associated achievements;
- sections to determine overall scores by category for assessment;
- sections to determine overall scores by category for a candidate & calculating an average;
- suggested achievement categories, levels of awards (silver, gold and platinum), for example
- scoring criteria; and
- suggestions for awards.
The proposal package also lists suggested resources needed for the program’s functioning, and a fundraising plan. Documents for evaluating the program’s success in terms of the guiding committee’s effectiveness (the Program Evaluation Form) and for measuring outcomes achievement (the Incentive Program Survey) are also included in the Excel workbook. An accompanying logic model provides an overview of the program’s priorities and expected inputs, outputs, and impact (short-term, medium-term, and long-term), with assumptions and external factors indicated.
Sensitivity Training
The purpose of the Sensitivity Training Project is to “offer sensitivity training to professors new to HBCUs, island life, and Virgin Islands culture”. A PowerPoint presentation is being used to develop these themes.
The overview of the introduction to USVI-style island life and culture includes the topics of:
- the USVI, relative to the Caribbean;
- the USVI, relative to the other Virgin Islands (U.K.);
- some USVI history;
- local government;
- the USVI/US relationship;
- travel by sea between the islands (ferry services);
- ‘local’ language/slangs;
- local sayings;
- local music;
- traditional dance;
- cultural dress; and
- local holidays.
The outline of UVI as an HBCU includes:
- some institutional history;
- current demographics of the UVI community;
- UVI’s organizational structure;
- institutional leadership;
- relationship with the USVI Govt;
- affiliations with other higher ed institutions;
- other external organizational relationships;
- campus culture;
- holidays and observances;
- Afternoon on the Green;
- Homecoming; and
- the UVI Pageant.
In some cases, integrations of topics occur. For example, the introduction to traditional dress flows into that of dance and music, as these aspects of culture are often demonstrated together. Or the role of sports in UVI campus life is integrated into its Homecoming activities, as tournaments are expected in its lineup of events. Overall, where possible, photos and in some cases links to video segments have been included to make explanations more relevant.
